Musa Hasahya Kasera, a 70-year-old man from Mukiza village in eastern Uganda, has fathered 102 children with his 12 wives. His family has grown so large that he struggled to remember all of his children’s names, making him to maintain a register to keep track of them. In addition to his children, Musa is also a grandfather to 578 grandchildren, adding to the complexities of managing such a large family.
Musa’s story came to light when he shared it on social media, revealing the overwhelming challenges he has faced in supporting his vast family. Despite his best efforts, he has often found it difficult to provide enough food and resources for everyone, as his family struggles with hunger and limited access to necessities. On average, Musa has had eight or nine children with each wife, that added to the growing size of his family over the years.
He was able to train just a few of his children through the basic education level. “Aside from my first and last child, I find it difficult to remember the names of the rest of my children; the mothers are the one that helps me to identify them,” he said.
His journey began in 1972 when he was just 17 years old and entered into his first marriage. Over the years, he married 12 women, one after another, without fully considering the long-term consequences of such decisions. “At first it was a joke… but now this has its problems,” he had told AFP at his homestead in the village of Bugisa in Butaleja district, a remote rural area of eastern Uganda.
As the number of his children continued to rise, Musa admitted that he did not foresee how challenging it would be to support them. “With my health failing and merely two acres of land for such a huge family, two of my wives left because I could not afford the basics like food, education, clothing.” In an effort to control the growing family size, he eventually turned to giving contraceptive pills to his wives to prevent further pregnancies.
“My wives are on contraceptives but I am not. I don’t expect to have more children because I have learnt from my irresponsible act of producing so many children that I can’t look after.”
His children’s age ranges from 10 to 50, while his youngest wife is below forty years old. Hasahya often seeks assistance from one of his sons, Shaban Magino, a 30-year-old school teacher, to provide for the family.
Hasahya married his first wife, Hanifa, in 1972, in accordance with the traditional rites of his ethnic nation. A year later, his wife gave birth to their first child Sandra Nabewire, and he dropped out of school to seek means to fend for his family.
Uganda banned child marriage in 1995, but polygamy remains legal, allowing men to marry multiple wives under specific religious and traditional customs. In the rural area of Bugisa, where Musa Hasahya resides, the community primarily relies on subsistence farming, cultivating staple crops such as cassava, rice, maize, and coffee, alongside cattle rearing, as reported by media sources.
Hasahya’s wives and adult children often take on menial jobs to support the family. These include tasks like fetching water, gathering firewood, sweeping for neighbors, braiding hair, and performing other domestic chores. Meanwhile, the men typically spend time in the family compound, sitting under the shade of trees and playing card games.
